You have probably come across bullet journaling in some way as it has increasingly become popular all over the world. Maybe you have seen artists on instagram using paints and make artworks around their monthly calendar, your stationary loving friend colour coding every class on her daily schedule, maybe your dad uses the system to track all his meetings for work, or maybe you have kept a bullet journal yourself for years? The great thing about bullet journaling is that it can work just as well for so many different people.

How BuJu works

Planning and writing down upcoming events in a calendar might not be revolutionary, but bullet journaling is something one still recognises as something specific. The bullet journal system, or BuJu, was created by Ryder Carroll, an American author and digital product designer. He originally designed the system for himself to help him work around his own learning disabilities and still be productive, with the thought behind it to easily and efficiently keep track of all his plans, tasks and notes in just one place. He later on shared it with some of his friends and got surprised when they also found his system helpful in their daily life. Thus he made it his mission to share the bullet journal system with the world in the hopes of helping more people stay productive and achieve their goals.

The system is based around rapid logging, using bulleted lists to quickly write down your information. Carroll uses different symbols like a simple dot, a bigger circle or an x to differentiate a task from a work meeting or a note, and arrows or lines to move things around if his plans change. In addition he also uses ‘nesting’, organising subtasks or notes under another task or event, and signifiers, such as a star or an exclamation mark, to make it easier to look at and find the important notes. 

There are a few important pages, or collections, he finds essential for the system like he created it to be as efficient as possible. The first thing is to start your journal with two blank pages as your index where you write down the page numbers as you fill out your notebook to easier find back to a specific month or collection. Then he recommends that you follow up with the next two pages as your six or twelve month future log. Simply part your page into three or six parts and title each part after each month, so that when you know you have an event coming up in a few months time it allows you to also write this down in your journal. After this you have your monthly log, or the calendar page, where he finds it the easiest to draw a vertical line down the page with all the days of the month. Here you write down all your bigger events and tasks to use as a reference for each of your daily logs. He also advises you to have the other side of the page being a monthly task page, or mental inventory, where you write down everything you are thinking about for the month to declutter your mind, which he thinks is essential for productivity. The last of his essential collections are your daily logs, this is where your rapid logging comes in with all your daily tasks, events and notes. He advises you not to write this down far in advance, but rather the night before or the same morning and then continue crossing things off your list and adding new notes during the day. 

Carroll created one system of all these symbols and pages that he thought was the easiest and made the most sense to him, but the beautiful thing about a bullet journal is that you can choose what works best for you. There is absolutely no right or wrong! You can organise each page to your own preference and even make up your own collections including things like for example a habit tracker, assignment overview or packing list. 

Social media & BuJu artists

As people discovered the system of bullet journaling and started changing it to fit their own lives, it has blown up on social media. Images of different bullet journals are shared daily from people all over the world to inspire a whole community. Some people stick to Carrolls minimalistic approach to journaling, while others use their creativity to decorate the spreads to fit their aesthetics and needs. One thing remains though, the intention behind it is to keep track of all your events and get your tasks and thoughts down in one place.

Bullet journaling has for some become more of creative outlet and hobby rather than just a simple system to track their lives. There are bullet journal artists all over social media creating beautiful pages with calligraphy, drawings, stickers, stamps, pictures and so much more, and having monthly themes or colour schemes that connects all the collections for that month is not a rare sight. There are millions of bullet journals floating the internet, and it is impossible not get get amazed and maybe inspired to start your own decorative daily planner in an empty notebook. It is both efficient and fun!

How to get started

So, how do you start a bullet journal? The answer is really simple, just get a notebook and start writing! Everyone can keep a bullet journal as you do not need a lot of tools to start, and it does not even need to cost you much at all. Just find an old empty notebook, it can be whatever you have on hand whether that is a blank, lined or dotted notebook, and a pen or pencil and you are good to go. If you want and are able to be a little more fancy you can make the effort to go out and buy a proper bullet journal, which essentially is a dotted notebook, and some coloured pens, stickers or washi tape to create the spread that will inspire you to get your tasks done.